For One Time Only?
by orinothanks
Summary: A young Luffy's Devil Fruit gives him his memories from his last attempt to find One Piece. The first time, his nakama disappeared, presumed dead. Follow Luffy as he tries to prevent it happening again. Time Travel Fic. WARNING: OOC!Luffy, Smarter Luffy and Stronger Luffy. Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

New Mind, Old Memories

_A/N This is a Time Travel fic where Luffy sees his older self's memories, and has his haki awakened and his strength increased at the age of 7. He also gets his scar and something else that would be a spoiler to tell you. As Luffy is going to be training Haki and already has knonwledge of Gomu Gomu, as well as a bit of strength, there is not going to be much that can stand up to him, at least until Crocodile, maybe further. Either way, I am not a fan of copying down things that happen exactly the same, so I will either make my own dialogue up, or edit scenes to change characters' thoughts and motives, while keeping actions the same. Time delay is also going to come into effect later. You know how Luffy sometimes escapes due to sheer luck of timing? What if he waited an extra hour before setting off? Would he still survive? Find out!_

**_Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. Take this as read for other chapters unlesss I tell you otherwise. Which I won't. Because I don't own One Piece._**

"A toast! To Luffy's great bravery and his mighty pistol punch!"

In Makino's bar, currently occupied by the Red-Hair Pirates, the revelries reached new heights. Again. Luffy didn't appreciate the latest joke being at his expense, like most were, but he was OK with it because Shanks was a cool pirate, and Luffy was going to be on his crew for sure next voyage! After all, he'd shown them how strong he was with that knife. They couldn't turn him down now! Shanks kept cracking jokes as Luffy screamed indignantly:

"I'm not a kid anymore Shanks! It didn't hurt at all and now you HAVE to take me on your next voyage, Ok?"

"I'll drink to that!" Lucky Roux exclaimed with a grin on his face. "Come on boss, be nice here. Let's just take him on a short cruise!" Shanks grinned evilly. "Alright, if you insist Roux, but only if one of the crew agrees to stay here in his place." Instantly the offer was retracted as various pirates muttered "Sorry Luffy...". Luffy frowned as the rest of the crew returned to their drunken games.

"A toast! To pirates' selfishness!" Shanks took the opportunity to teach Luffy a pirating lesson. "Luffy! listen carefully. The reason I am a pirate and not just a sailor is because I am selfish! A good pirate is selfish! If you have a pile of meat, do you share it?" "Gramps says I should share it with the hungry people," muttered Luffy, still sulking over not being allowed on the voyage. "But I want ALL the meat!" Shanks cackled loudly at Luffy's betrayal of his grandfather.

"BWAHAHA! You'll make a great pirate then! What an amazing kid!"

An irked Luffy replied stroppily"I told you already, I'M NOT A KID!"

"Calm down, calm down Luffy." Shanks soothed Luffy in a non-confrontational tone. "Have some juice".

"Ok, thanks!" Luffy drank happily, not realising he had been tricked until too late.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!"

xxxxxxx

"ALRIGHT! I'm not here for trouble, I just want some sake. A few barrels should do it." A smirking mountain bandit burst in, surrounded by cronies. He wore a grey undershirt under a dark brown travelling cloak, which was decorated by a vertical black strip down one side with a golden pattern of number 8s down the strip. Around his tanned neck hung a chan of bright orange flowers and a self-assured grin to match. His weapon appeared to be a normal green katana, but Luffy could have sworn it was glowing slightly. The bandit began arguing with Shanks and Makino over alcohol but Luffy was no longer interested. He had discovered his first treasure chest. In it was a small purple fruit covered in swirling patterns. 'Looks delicious!' Luffy thought but as he examined the fruit, scanning for indications of poison like his grandpa had taught him. Or more accurately, forced him to learn, from experience. Luffy had built up a nominal resistance to some poison just from the times he 'hadn't been careful enough'. As he looked at the fruit, he noticed an x-shaped chunk of the fruit that was not the same colour as the rest. What did the X mmean?

'Danger: do not eat? Or maybe X Marks The Spot!' Luffy grinned as he remembered the type of box he found the dessert in. 'Treasure fruit!'

Luffy opened his mouth to take a succulent first bite but he was distracted from his delicious mystery treat when he heard the sound of a bottle of sake smashing over Shanks' head. The fruit forgotten, Luffy's attention was on Shanks as he laughed it off and helped Makino clean up the bar. Higuma laughed at the Red-haired pirate before making a remark about how he expected no better from pirates. Luffy was outraged at Shanks' response (because it is in no way manly to behave like that when somebody disrespects you, and then every pirate ever, including Luffy's dream, especially if they are weaker than you) and stormed outside still clutching the chest and fruit. As he realised Higuma was still stood outside he had an idea. He would give Shanks one more chance, and if he didn't see fit to defend his own honour from this bastard then Luffy would do it for him!

xxxxxx

Luffy growled and stomped up to the very surprised bandit.

"Apologise!"

" what"

"Apologise for what you did to Shanks right now!" Luffy yelled threateningly. His eye was twitching from a mix between anger and fear as he stood his ground against a ferocious bandit twice his size.

Higuma smirked.

"And why should I listen to a squirt like you? If you support that red-haired idiot wimp than you must be like him. A stupid wannabe who thinks that dreams come true!" Glaring down at the pint-sized pirate he noticed the child held... something purple. "Hey squirt, what's that in your hand? Give it to me!"

Even as unknown as these fruits are in remote places such as Foosha Village, one of the bandits recognised what the purple fruit was.

"Higuma! That's a legendary Devil's fruit! They are said to taste horrible but to grant the eater amazing powers. Also, they will take away your ability to swim. Are you going to eat it?"

The bandit leader scowled.

"Do I look like a moron? I don't want to be a freak. It can't be worth much. Nobody would want to be singled out and be a monster." Then, he grinned. "You know what the Celestial Dragons do with these? I'd thought they were just a legend, but I heard that those on Holy Marejois like to feed these fruits to their slaves just for their own entertainment. And here we have a little squirt pet of our own!"

Two bandits held a struggling Luffy down as Higuma forced the fruit into his mouth.

Luffy's last thought before the devil fruit took effect was 'No! They said it tastes horrible! Don't make me eat it!'

As Luffy's mouth was forced closed and he swallowed the fruit whole a searing pain flared in his torso as an X shape carved itself into his body for the first yet second time as half-formed memories burned into his mind repeating one word over and over as panic took over and

_Marine Admiral... stepped into the forest clearing._

_"I've kept training..." _

_"Pirate King Luffy : I've come to capture you... Haki!"_

A blue wave burst outward, passing all of Higuma's bandits and dissipating just short of a terrified Maikino, who had rushed out of the bar to see why Luffy had shouted. The bandits seemed frozen in time as the terror and pain Luffy had just felt was released as a mind-breaking wave of Haki. Shanks appeared behind her as the bandits, one by one, keeled over and slumped to the ground. As the last crony of his fell Higuma dropped to his knees, gasping and struggling to breath, before somehow recovering himself and forcing his body to stand up. He scooped up the prone body of Luffy and threw down a smoke bomb, escaping from the confused and angry mob of pirates, and disappearing from view.

"Dammit! Shanks hissed and focused his mind to the entire island, searching desperately for Luffy's familiarly strong mind. For a second he felt nothing and began to panic but then he noticed it. Weak, but there. It was being masked from him, he realised. "Just who is this guy!?"

_Luffy was slowed to the point of Foxy's Noro Noro Beam _

_haki... damaged by the hit... Luffy's fist descended..."Armament: Hardening!"_

_Kill him like... put down his brother!" _

xxxxxxx

"Haha! They'd never think of looking for a mountain bandit on the sea, would they? ... Look, it's no fun taunting you if you're unconscious!" Higuma smirked as he remembered just how badly he had been underestimated by Red-Hair. From his research he knew couldn't take on Shanks, but he knew that once he had got hold of the 'squirt' he had no reason to go near him anyway. Soon he would return the kid to his master and he would live a rich life.

As Higuma commenced his long row towards the west, a giant sea king burst out of the water baring its teeth like the pet from hell.

"No...No!"

And Higuma was gone. As he died the sword flew out of his sheath and flew in an arc towards the small boat. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was the last act of the bandit. Whatever happened, the sword landed on Luffy's unconcious body and as the blade curved around his body blunt side first, impaling itself next to Luffy without harming him, Red Haired Shanks swam towards the boat.

_only righteous power in the marines...killed...déjà vu "lost your will to live..."_

_ power exploded outward... he was the bad guy... pink blur... dead._

Shanks appeared next to the boat, scaring the sea king away with a flash of Haki. As he did Luffy slowly opened his eyes.

"Shanks!"

"It's ok now Luffy, you're safe." Shanks murmured comfortingly as Luffy sobbed in his arms.

"But Shanks! Your arm!"

"What are you talking about Luffy? My arm's fine!"

Luffy jolted. The half formed memories he had confused with reality conflicted, fighting for dominance in his mind and exhausting Luffy beyond belief. After that... Blackness.

xxxxxx

_A/N: Just overhauled Chapter1 massively because I wasn't too happy with the pacing, or the general writing. Also it felt a bit too short. How's this in terms of length? Too long? good? not long enough? let me know with a review!_


	2. Chapter 2- Repressed Memories!

Chapter 2- Supressed Memories! Luffy's other past!

Leaning against the trunk of a huge tree, with metallic bronze wood and green leaves, Monkey D. Luffy waited, his head looking to the ground, and his beloved straw hat shielding his eyes from the horrors of the past. The tree his aching back rested against was located to the back of a clearing in the hue forest that covered the whole island. It stood out slightly from a ring of trees a quarter-mile in the metallic ree was by far the tallest of all the trees surrounding it, every tree near the grove seemed to stretch miles on miles into the air, a bed of bristling nails, reaching up to pierce the heavens. The floor of the clearing was a carpet of perfect green grass, soft and gentle yet so similar to the trees above blazing sun burnt down on the clearing, the only place it could penetrate the thick canopy that hid the huge symbols etched into the ground away from prying eyes.

Luffy heard a cough and glanced up. Marine Admiral Coby stepped into the forest clearing.

"Pirate King Luffy... I've... I've come to... capture you!"

"What does it matter anyway? Just kill me!" Luffy scowled, his moment of reflection and self-pity disturbed.

A sob escaped Coby's throat until his eyes hardened.

"You're not the Luffy I met on Alvida's ship"

"Times have changed. I kept training, kept myself alive so their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. But it would be easier to die than be captured again."

Coby growled.

"I know more about the nature of time than you ever will, Luffy. Soru."

The world slowed around Coby even as he sped up. Before Luffy could do anything Coby was on him, accelerating his movement with the Time Time Fruit he had consumed. Barely dodging Coby's punch Luffy responded with one of his own, met by a black heel. Instantly Luffy was slowed to the point of Foxy's Noro Noro Beam and could only wait for Coby to hit him. Coby pounced and delivered a blow to Luffy's skull, knocking Luffy out of the temporal freeze he was caught in. Luffy instantly recovered even though Coby's haki meant he was damaged by the hit. As he flew into the tree his arm was already wrapped around a branch, swinging him around and reversing his momentum towards Coby.

"Armament: Hardening!" he called, waitng for his arm to blacken as it always had. Nothing happened.

While the fist he buried in Coby's stomach did hurt him, and knock him backward into a crowd of marine soldiers Luffy hadn't even noticed, the haki had not even engaged.

"I guess since you lost your will to live you lost your mental strength too".

Luffy's eyes widened and he tried to knock out the marines with his mind. No such luck.

"If I had my haki, this would be one-sided. However, this fight will be fairly equal without it."

Coby frowned.

"Don't underestimate the marine admirals, Luffy. It's been different since you killed Sakazuki. Fujitora is a strong Fleet Admiral, just as good as Sengoku was. His 'blind justice' as well as his strategic planning has led the marines into a new age of justice. You know why the Elder Stars didn't execute you? Sakazuki wanted to, but they were afraid you would rekindle the Age of Piracy like Gold Roger would have."

Luffy's eyes glinted dangerously.

"So you settled for my crew."

"Only some of them! We couldn't find Nami, Usopp or Sanji." Luffy's eyes widened at the revelation.  
"And you know it wasn't my choice Luffy. I was just a vice-admiral. I couldn't do anything to stop it!"

"But did you even TRY?" Luffy spat. He glared viciously at the admiral. "No. that would ruin your precious promotion! You know, I never saw you stand up to that bastard at Marineford, and I'm starting to believe it didn't even happen."

Coby gasped at Luffy's withdrawal of the gratitude he had expressed at his life-saving delay tactic and as he did, Luffy burst forward as if from a starting block. He kicked Coby backwards, propelling him towards the marines once more, but as the marine flew back he was already gripping his pink hair by two interlocked hands. As they began spinning Luffy roared "Gomu Gomu No HAMMER!" As he had done to Richie the lion all those years ago, he slammed a spinning Coby into the metal tree behind them as he quicky burst into Gear Second. "Jet Spear! Jet Stamp! Gomu Gomu no BELL!"

A bloodied Coby struggled to his feet as Luffy prepared Gear Third. As soon as the giant fist came crashing down, he blurred out of existence, his Soru combined with his devil fruit making him too fast for the Pirate King to follow without his Haki. Luffy prepared to block him where he knew Coby would attack. Through all their duels Luffy had realised a certain pattern to his rival's style. But he hadn't reckoned on Coby knowing too. The admiral had all the time in the world to adjust his attack and strike Luffy in the side of his head with a "Rankyaku!" and before Luffy could even be knocked back Coby followed with a Finger Pistol narrowly missing Luffy's heart as he realised they were both going all out. 'The difference must be so great between us if Luffy isn't even using his greatest asset- his legendary haki! Even though we both reached our goals, his must be so much more ambitious than mine if this is the level he's reached. If I survive this, I promise to myself I will train much harder to once reach his standard!'

As they both prepared for a final attack, a marine interrupted from the crowd watching.

"Coby-senchou! Kill him like Akainu put down his brother!"

Luffy roared. The wound that had been ignored for so long, recently renewed with the destruction of his nakama, had just been cruelly ripped open. A rubber arm appeared at the marine's throat and dragged him into the fight. The marine gulped as Luffy raised his fist, his rage causing his armament haki to finally burst into being, stronger than ever, and

Time slowed. Even as Luffy's fist descended a appeared. Luffy gasped as his blackened fist burst through Coby's chest.

His armament died as he realised who he had just killed. The only righteous power in the marines, the only admiral protecting justice. Then, as he felt a strong sense of déjà vu as Coby's face seemed to flicker between the admiral's and Ace, the name with which that overly excited marine had unknowingly condemned Coby with. As Luffy's mind finally realised just who he was imitating, that he was the bad guy, he snapped.

A wave of the Conquering Pirate King's Haki burst out, breaking the minds of the terrified marines and tossing them aside like rag dolls. At the same time Coby's power exploded outward. While no damage was done to the trees around then, the leaves changed colour quickly, orange, brown, green, shrinking into the branches while more appeared on the ground below. While seasons shot by, one tree remained unchanged. The tree Luffy had leant on, the tree he had fought under, the tree Coby's corpse and Luffy's broken body lay under, the tree covered in strange fruit decorated in swirling patterns. The World Tree.

xxxxxxx

A purple, spherical fruit covered in swirls, except for a strange X shape on the bottom, rolled off the metallic branches of the World Tree and landed in the fast flowing currents surrounding the clearing. As it entered the open sea, a hand closed around the fruit. "Hey, Captain, look what I found!"

The fruit was placed into a small wooden chest and forgotten about. For now.

_A/N: No present time in this chapter, I wanted to use this chapter for exposition. Coby uses Sakazuki mainly because Akainu isn't a marine/ alive any more. the name Akainu is going to be a bit of a rage-trigger for Luffy, so note that **Sakazuki=Akainu.**_

_Thanks for the feedback you've left so far! I recently got a swanky new bluetooth keyboard for my phone, so I can churn out chapters like nobody's business now. Until I run out of ideas. Make sure that doesn't happen! Review with feedback and predictions/ideas! I'm not sure on a schedule yet but I'm posting this early because it was finished, I got my 1 review target, and I am procrastinating from French GCSE things._

_Dark D Phoenix: Thanks for the review! Hopefully the pacing in this chapter is a little better, if not, please say so again :)_

_Yomamma3: Thanks for your feedback, this chapter is a little longer. The marine Luffy sounds like a great idea, but not one I will use in this story. If you're ok with me taking it and crediting you I may write a seperate fic about Luffy as a marine- Shanks never came back for him/ Garp rescued him from the Sea king. How's that sound?_

_Review! Motivate me to write more kewl stuffz! :)_


	3. Chapter 3- Telling Tales!

Chapter 3- Telling tales! What is evil?

Luffy's eyes snapped open. He remembered everything. For some reason eating the Gomu Gomu No Mi had awakened his haki and given him memories from... A previous life? Luffy didn't know, but there was one thing he did. If these memories were true, he would do all he could to protect his nakama. The most important people in his life, the people he'd never met before. Only one thing to do- test whether it was all true, or that fruit caused some kind of hallucination. Either way it seemed to have made him smarter, judging by the thinking he was doing at the moment. His brain didn't even hurt!

"Luffy, you've been asleep for almost the whole day! How are you feeling?" Makino interrupted Luffy's train of thought as he decided he would stop stalling and ask a question that Shanks would, and he wouldn't, know. Something that he could justify asking.

"Shanks... Who is Buggy?"

Makino shouted, "WHAT A RANDOM QUESTION!"  
Shanks calmly replied "Oh, he was a fellow apprentice on a pirate ship with me. Why?"

Luffy gulped. Although he wqas shocked that his memories were actually correct, he quickly realised that things can happen differently to the way theey were 'meant to'. He knew orrigginally Shanks had lost his arm, and he had assumed it would happen again, but something to do with the timing had meant that Shanks had avoided injury. Luffy was glad that the future wasn't set in stone, because there would be nothing worse than watching his nakama die, knowing he couldn't have even tried to prevent it, knowing he failed them not only once, but twice. 'It's true then. Looks like I can help my nakama survive now. Only thing, I don't know how all of them died. Hmm. I'll just make them train better this time. If I can get Nami and the others to Zoro level, and Zoro and Sanji to, say, Yonkou, there's no chance that they wil get captured by the seagull bastards. Oh, and I need to make sure Coby reaches his dream. If he lost it all twice because of my stupidity, I would hate myself.'

Luffy realised Shanks was waiting for an answer and quickly composed a lie, which was probably true at some point, but not the whole truth.

"Oh, no reason Shanks. I just heard you mention him sometime".

"Ok. Now, Luffy," Shanks prepared himself to grill Luffy, who looked like he could do with anything but questions, but he . "Makino told me everything that happened. How the HELL do you have the King's haki? It took me years of piracy to even awaken it, and my haki is known as one of, if not THE strongest on the sea!"

Luffy frowned, not wanting to lie to Shanks, but in order for the vague plan he'd come up with in the night to work he would have to feign ignorance. He couldn't even really afford to think it around Shanks, until he'd told him the whole truth. He had to tell somebody; the whole thing was eating him from the inside. But now, to misleading people

" I don't know, is that the knocky-out thing? It just happened when I ate that treasure fruit!"

"You ate WHAT?" At this point, Red Haired Shanks was rapidly becoming Red-Faced Shanks as revelation after revelation continued to hit him. He knew how hard Luffy had been working to be able to swim, and now that would all be taken away from him. "Makino, why didn't you tell me Luffy ate a devil fruit? Luffy, if you ate the fruit that was in the bar you will turn to rubber and never swim again!"

Luffy feigned shock for a moment before giving up the act.

"Rubber?! AWESOME! Looks like that mean bandit guy wasn't too mean after all. Still shouldn't have forced me to eat the fruit though." Luffy paused and pouted. "Hey, I didn't get to taste it properly! Stick-Bear guy made me swallow it whole. I'd better eat another one later. Maybe a water one. That sounds really tasty". At this point Shanks interjected. "The bandit guy forced you to eat it? That bastard... Taking away someone's ability to swim like that..." He frowned." He'll pay. Also, I wouldn't eat another one if I were you, Luffy. They taste horribly disgusting, and if you eat multiple ones you will explode!" Luffy was avguely annoyed at this turn of events but grinned.

"Swimming isn't too important anyway. I can just get my nakama to pull me out! Rubber sounds really cool though! I can stretch and punch people like THIS!" Luffy demonstrated his attack by punching at the red-haired, master warrior, master worrier. Luffy's 7-year old body wasn't ready for the kind of power Luffy put into the punch and ad a result, although he'd aimed for the stomach, his aim was completely off and he caught Shanks square in the nose, knocking him backwards through the wall, into the main room of Makino's tavern! Well, that solved the mystery of where Luffy was, at least. He was surprised he hadn't heard the partying pirates beforehand.

"Wow, you have great soundproofing Makino! Umm... Had. Sorry! How can I repay you, Makino?"

"Don't worry, kid. It's on me". Shanks stood up from the wreckage and tossed Makino a pouch of jewels.

"Seriously though, what is wrong with you today? You just punched a Yonko through a wall, and you seem to have given up on the whole self-reliant thing you and that angry kid up at Dadan's had going. You wanted to be able to save yourself when you got lost at sea, but now suddenly you trust others to do it?" Shanks, by now, was resigned to his fate of being eternally confused by the rubber wannabe pirate. "Tell you what, Luffy. You seem to have quite a bit of potential that even I hadn't noticed. How 'bout I don't leave, and I stay here to train you for a few years, eh?" Luffy nodded and made his mind up to tell Shanks everything. Well, most things anyway.

"Shanks, I have something to tell you then. No offence Makino, but could..." Makino, a master of tact, was long gone. "Shanks, I have memories from another time."

"Umm... What?"

"There was something weird with that devil fruit. When I ate it I got memories of having this adventure with all my friends. It's like I've had a vision of the future, but that I can change it!" Shanks began considering the idea, caught himself and scoffed. "Luffy, I can't teach you if you make up stupid lies, the potential Pirate King needs to be mature!" Luffy's eyed shot open. "Pirate King, you think so?"

"Forget I said anything" grumbled Shanks, his Freudian slip failing to go unnoticed.

Luffy decided it was time to play his trump card. He pulled open his red vest, snapping off several buttons and revealing a bloodied scar across his chest in the same X shape he had seen on the bottom of the fruit. His skin was raised around the edges of the jagged cut, and the raw flesh that had been carved out of his chest gleamed an angry red. the skin of his chest stung like a it had somehhow offended an army of angry bees. Shanks gasped.

"Luffy! Was that what...? Your chest? Did that bear bastard do this to you? I will hunt him down and personally KILL him!".

"Calm down Shanks, " chided Luffy. It's too healed to have been done yesterday, don't you see?" Shanks looked confused. "What happened then?"

"This scar appeared on my chest when I ate the Gomu Gomu No Mi. When I ate it I also gained a lot of memories of a 'previous life' or something similar where I became Pirate King. That scar in the 'Previous Life' was given to me in Marineford by a marine admiral. As I said, I can change what happened in the memories. However, I suspect that if I change too much of what happened, the entire future will change, and I won't know what will happen next. " Shanks looked about ready to burst as Luffy continued his monologue. "The reason I suddenly trust other people as you noticed is because I have memories of my nakama. I know some of them died in the end, and I think all of them did. That's why I'm so determined to change it this time. I can't live with myself if I let it happen twice. That's why I need to become even stronger. I made it to the first layer of Raftel, and found the treasure located there. However, I felt my crew die while I was there, and I childishly refused to go any further without my nakama. I stayed on the island, training my Haki and strength until I ran out of things to fight. Then I waited... Waited hours until the marines finally turned up. That's when I died." How did you die?" Shanks leaned forward, enthralled by the tale Luffy had spun, no longer caring whether it was true or not."How did the devil fruit give you these memories anyway?" Luffy held up his hand before Shanks could ask any more questions and explained. "I don't know how I died. I killed the marine admiral who came to capture me by accident. We were friends for many years, like Roger and Gramps. And I KILLED HIM! We weren't even fighting. He died protecting some nameless marine who got on my nerves! What kind of justice is that?" Luffy stopped, caught himself, and continued his story.

"Anyway, something weird happened. the Admiral's devil fruit was the Time Time Fruit. I think when I killed him I released some Haoshoku Haki which melded with the power he released from his heart when I hit him. The first level of Raftel, the World Tree... I think that the combined powers of me and the Admiral affected the tree. What seems to make sense is that my personality was imprinted into the tree, as well as my devil fruit power, and the Time Time Fruit's power meant that the devil fruit was affected at all points in time.

Shanks was still confused. "And the scar? I remember seeing an X shape carved into the bottom of the fruit."

The last thing on my mind as I passed out was the event that caused the scar. It must have been transferred to the fruit and therefore to my younger body."

Shanks was ready to ask more questions but when he glanced at Luffy the youngster was snoring. Shanks gently placed Luffy on his bed but as he did, Luffy opened his eyes half a crack. "Shanks... am I evil?"

"Luffy, your other self may have made some bad choices but he wasn't deliberately murdering innocents and I know that he was devastated by the loss of his crew. Even so, as you said, you can change the future. You don't have to make the same choices; in fact you have the advantage of knowing the possible outcomes. In the same way that being different doesn't make you a monster, you haven't done anything wrong."

Luffy tried to object, but Shanks firmly cut him off. "YOU haven't done anything wrong. Not the Pirate King version of you, he never existed: You're not even a pirate, never mind a king. At least not yet, eh?"

Luffy smiled as he drifted off into sleep once more.

_A/N: Little nod towards TreeStar there with the ending. Also, Whew! 2k words! These chapters keep getting longer! Let me know if they get too long._

_Last bit of exposition is complete I think. The next stage in my plan is complete as the iPad I ordered arrived today. Not only can I write on the go, but I can also see what I'm writing! Maybe there'll be less typos now :) _

_Bad news: I've run out of the backlog of chapters I started while I was too lazy to work out how to post on . That means there may not be 1 chapter a day anymore. If you haven't seen my rehaul of chapter 1, check it out as I think the pacing's a bit better and I introduced a setup for a whole sub-plot I wanted to include but forgot :P _

_On the subject of changing things, what do you guys think about me performing some rather extreme changes to the story? Like to the level of a whole new arc because of a detail I already mentioned extreme? I'm up for either way, but I don't want to do what most time-travel fics do and just copy almost all the dialogue and story._

_Dark: The last chapter was written mostly before I got your review but this is all-new so hopefully the pacing's even better now. The next episode will probably be the fastest paced so far, because I think it'll probably be a 10-year training montage. :) The bluetooth keyboard is available on Amazon. There are official Apple ones and so forth, but the one I got, from Anker, is cheaper and better._

_Yomamma: Thanks again for the review! If you want, you could maybe even write that yourself! I know I'd read it! _

_Ashlielle: Thanks so much, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside :) I will probably not go for a pairing in this story, as I am terrible at writing romance, but as I mentioned above, large-scale changes are hopefully coming :) *Noms upon said cookie*_

_1 review gets me started on the next chapter, 2 gets me to post it as soon as possible!_


	4. Chapter 4-Training!

Chapter 4- The Next 10 Years! Training to protect nakama!

~~~~~~~~=Timeskip!

_A/N: So this is more of a series of one-shots of various important events in the next 10 years until we actually reach the start of the anime._

_IMPORTANT: Apologies to everyone about the formatting glitch in this chapter. It should be fixed now, Shoutout to Mr. Indigo: Thanks so much for the saving of the bacons!_

"So, Luffy, do you think you will join the Shichibukai this time around? It could be useful if you want access to their special current around the 3 marine bases in the Grand Line, as well as the lack of marines chasing you," Shanks asked Luffy seriously as he led Luffy towards the open grassland the rubber King-in-Waiting had spent so much of his previous childhood in. "After what you've told me of your plan, It could be of great use to you. I still can't get over that, by the way".

"Shishishi! Luffy laughed and shook his head. "What would be the point of being a pirate if I had to listen to orders from people?"

Shanks was once again taken aback by how much Luffy resembled his own dead captain. There was no doubt that this was the Pirate King's successor. Shanks refused to let Luffy know that, however. He needed Luffy to be under pressure to train as hard as he could. If he lost sight of his real goal, saving the lives of his nakama, he could well become the broken, enraged monster who had killed his rival and caused this whole fiasco once again, and the question Luffy had asked him three nights ago had shaken him more than the red-haired Emperor had let on. The fact alone that a 7-year-old had to deal with that level of self-doubt was enough to show that there was something truly wrong with the world they were living in, and, well who better to fix it than the child in front of him?"

Luffy was practically bouncing up and down in front of him shouting "What we gonna learn, What we gonna learn, What we gonna learn?"

"Well..." began Shanks, "DODGE!" He tossed a handful of stones at Luffy. The youngster's eyes widened as the pebbles struck him square in the face, as well as just about everywhere else.

"I saw them coming, but I couldn't dodge in time!" Luffy whined. "No fair." Shanks then began a merciless assault on Luffy with his sword, cleverly coating the blade in Armament Haki to keep it blunt. It hurt Luffy like hell when it hit, sure. However, this way it wouldn't cause any scars or wounds. The rubber-boy scrambled backwards, jumping to his feet and barely avoiding the blackened blade. 'Shanks has gone mad!' he thought to himself.

As a black and blue Luffy looked to be on the edge of consciousness from the sound beating the Yonko had given him, Red-hair decided to try one last test. He focussed his will and directed it towards the child, attempting to knock him out, seeing how well he could resist. To his surprise, something extraordinary happened. The black-haired wannabe grinned as Shanks felt his strength... being sapped? As he immediately cut off the flow of Haki he was directing at Luffy, th boy sprang off the floor onto his feet. He swung a fist towards Shanks, missing completely again, but somehow grabbing onto a bush behind the Yonko and propelling himself towards Shanks' face. Shanks staggered, drained and surprised by the new development and took a flying Monkey to the face. They both tumbled to the ground, rolling down a hill and towards Luff''s hometown. As the two pirates collapsed in a heap at the feet of a disapproving Mayor, they groaned and covered their ears to protect themselves from a prime Woop Slap Rant.

'OK, I think I've got a good impression of Luffy's skills and abilities.' mused Shanks as the Mayor ranted on, a frown on his face as he suspected that neither of the cretins on the floor were listening to him. 'He doesn't yet have full control of his Devil Fruit powers, and although his observation haki and armament are average level, he doesn't have reaction times quick enough to dodge the attacks, so we'll need to work on that. Also, we need to train his Haki to King level, not just equal to some girl on Skypia or Amazon Lily. Finally, I need to look more into that that weird reaction was with his Haoshoku Haki. It's as if his will became strong enough too absorb anyone trying to overpower it, like I tried to. Hmm... If Luffy can learn that properly he could stand a much better chance against the stronger people on the Grand Line who are also blessed with the King's Haki. Although if Luffy's becomes even more versatile than it is at the moment, we'll have to rename it!'

When Garp returned to the island occasionally to beat (sorry, train) up his grandson he found that every time the little monkey was getting exponentially stronger. One day, Luffy asked him "Gramps, will you please show me what the 'Six Powers' are? "Shanks said that they were the coolest part of being a marine. Please can you show me what they're like, so I can decide if being a marine's cooler than being a pirate." Garp bellowed with laughter. "Those techniques are military secrets Luffy! I can't go showing them to anyone!" Luffy pouted. "I guess Shanks was right. Marines are less cool than pirates."

"WaitNoNOWaitNo! OK," Garp begrudgingly agreed. I'll show you them. But there are cooler parts to being a marine. Like punching people! and throwing cannonballs!"

"You just said those because that's what YOU do." Luffy pointed out logically. Garp looked sulky. "Is grandpa not cool enough for you?" "Only if you do Six Powers!" yelled Luffy, breaking into a chant. "Six Powers, Six Powers, Six Powers!"

"Alright!" Garp interrupted Luffy before he could get into a rhythm, because God knows when he does, he's not going to stop for a LONG time. "Get ready! This is the first of the Six Powers. SORU!" Garp appeared and disappeared in several places, moving between them incredibly fast and completely failing to notice that Luffy had followed his movements easily. "The next is called Kami-e! Try to punch me!" Luffy jumped up from his seat and swung at Garp. Although he deliberately missed, Garp appeared to dodge easily as his body wass as limp as paper.

''Next! Geppou!" The vice admiral jumped around, kicking off the air and bouncing on one foot showing off yet again. "WOOW! SUGEI!" Luffy yelled with stars in his eyes.

The vice-admiral grinned wildly. "Two more! Tekkai! Punch me again!" Intentionally weakly, Luffy did so and feigned shock when his Grandpa was as solid as iron.

"Finally! The cutting kick, Rankyaku! Luffy ducked as Garp kicked above his head and sliced a row of trees down with only one kick!"

"How was that? Did you like that? Garp asked Luffy. The rubber-kid considered his answer for a while, before replying... "It was pretty cool," Garp smiled happily, "but not as cool as PIRATES!"

"WHY YOU LITTLE...!" Garp chased Luffy back to Foosha village, but he never did catch the annoying child.

'The 6 powers are actually pretty cool!' Luffy thought.

The following day, when Luffy met up with his mentor, thanks to Garp's departure from the island (he thought that Shanks had left years ago) They sat back in two reclined chairs and drank none other than Luffy's favourite drink, (And quite possibly Shanks' too, from the amount of times he insisted he got some as well) JUICE!

"So Luffy, how did your plan turn out for you?"

" It was pretty good," Red-hair's protégé replied. "I got him to show me 5 of the six techniques. I don't know why he wouldn't show me the finger-stabby one, but I'm not really interested in that."

"Oh?" Shanks looked intrigued. "So did you work out how they're done?" "I worked out Soru in my previous lifetime. The user just kicks the ground 10 times in each second and that just means they go really fast. The Geppou where they fly is just them kicking off the air with the right angle and strength of the kick. I should be able to work it out, but it's going to take a lot of time and practice.

Luffy stepped to the side as a gob of spit flew past his face. He almost smirked but he just barely managed to keep up the pretence of being disgusted. He looked up, trying not to, but a huge grin lit up his face as he saw the brother He had admired for years and then failed to save, once again alive, a fresh new slate that Luffy could protect properly. He knew however how important it was, to make sure Ace viewed him in the same way, and to not accidentally make the fiery-tempered iron pipe-wielding maniac hate him as he had when they first met. He waved cheerily at Ace and hopped inside to avoid being spat on again. Luffy, to all the grown bandits' surprise, was very good at stealing food from the others' plates: even when Dadan refused to let him have any, and instead gave him a bowl of rice, the majority of the meat seemed to end up inside of the rubber stomach. Luffy kept up the daily charade of following Ace around and being 'beaten up' by him, until the day when he managed to make it to the tree where the pirate ship treasure money collection was located without Ace or Sabo noticing. When Ace opened the lid to discuss where they could buy a boat from, Luffy gasped. He quickly covered his mouth with his hands but it was too late. The reason he was so surprised? There was a huge amount more treasure than before: over 80 million berries! 'How did they even manage to get all that money?

_Luffy laughed as he fought with Shanks, trying to 'harness his environment' as Shanks had instructed him to. Luffy had decided to use a tree as a club to attack Red-hair with, while Shanks, more subtly, was leading Luffy into molehills and traps dug into the ground. Luffy yelled in anger as his foot became stuck in a bear trap marked "G.K" and he tossed the tree as hard as he could towards Shanks. The redhead leaned slightly to the side and the tree flew past him, flying so far that Luffy couldn't hear it land._

_"Behind you!" Sabo shouted a warning at Ace and Ace, being the hotheaded thrill-seeking adventurer that he was, heard where the mystery flying object was and leaped into the air, expecting to catch it but instead ending up being dragged along with it. Sabo groaned and joined him in clinging onto... A flying tree? The massively strong lump of wood sailed through the air, passing straight over the walls of Goa Kingdom and impaling itself in a grey concrete building... Filled with gold! _

Luffy had no clue where the extra money had come from but he was certain of one thing. Since it was different from his memory, it was somehow his fault. He began to apologise but then abruptly stopped, realising that it was good to have more gold than expected. Sabo and Ace frowned, assuming he was apologising for discovering their stash, and wondering why he had stopped. After a brief moment of consideration, Ace nodded. "We're gonna have to kill him". Sabo nodded in agreement and they prepared to beat Luffy into a pulp. Ace gasped, however, annd stopped when Porchemy and his group of pirates approached. He and Sabo escaped into a tree, leaving Luffy all on his lonesome, facing a group of bloodthirsty pirates. Or was it that they left a group of bloodthirsty pirates all on their lonesome, facing a Luffy? Either way, Luffy realised what he was going to have to do, and sighed.

After he'd let himself be punched up by Porchemy and be rescued, Luffy, Ace, and Sabo exchannged a cup of sake, declaring themselves brothers! Luffy teared up a little at reliving quitee possibly his most treasured memory but quickly hid it for fear Ace would notice.

One beating and reconciliation, and a lot of brotherly love later, Ace was facing a group of bloodthirsty pirates along with Luffy and all was going as expected as they were both restrained by their enemies unexpectedly (for Ace) Luffy went along with it and let the pirate slash his fac, wwhich strangely didn't seem to do any damage to him. However, when Ace let out an angry yell infused with King's Haki as the pirate prepared to stab Luffy, he felt stronger than ever. He 'helped' Bluejam sleep too, with his own Haki, and nobody suspected a thing.

As Luffy's aura got even stronger when the years went by, Shanks decided to teach him a trick he himself had used many times when entering a ship for the extra-intimidating touch. With enough focus Shanks could solidify his aura slightly, enough to scrape the physical world with his mind. Nothing is scarier for the average soldier than to see your boat carving itself up as your comrades pass out in front of you, all just by being near one man. Luffy soon discovered he was actually able to create solid 'lumps' of Haoshoku Haki. Then, he realised that he could turn these into walls and barriers. As one of Curly Dadan's bandits discovered, the average person punching or attacking one of these would lead to an effect similar to what if feels like when the Pirate King overpowers your will. Which is basically what he was doing. However, the really inteeresting bit of this whole discovery was that if the solid Haoshoku were to touch those mentaally strong enough to resist being knocked out, it would hit them physically, as if it were solid glass or something similar. Shanks did not like this. Not one bit. Although it was great for Luuffy yada yada stronger attacks blah blah, IT HURT and Shanks was not in a good mood afterr being slapped around by somebody's willpower for hours on end in the name of 'Practice'.. He vaguely regretted being quite so harsh on Luffy one the first day of his training.. But not too much. As a result of Shanks' current strop. when the bandit woman, Daddy or sommething, tried to offload some child called Sabo onto him, well... Suffice to say that woman didn't stay around for that long.

_A/N: This chapter was a lot harder for me to write than the others. I don't know if it's because of the oneshots, or the fact that I seem to have recieved a broken keyboard (Dark, maybe don't buy the Anker one if you haven't already, although mine may just have been a malfunctioning one. If I press enter or occasionally other keys, it types two of them. This makes paragraph breaks a lot harder to do, as well as checking my spelling at the end. If you see any words with extra doubledd - like that, :( then thats my excuse. Very excited for next chapter; written my first badass moment for it :) _

_Ash: Thanks again for the happiez, glad you understand that now, and apologies if this is not quite up to scratch; this chapter felt really hard to write._

_Phonenix: Thanks1 I'll try to continue it for as long as I can. I hate it when fanfics are not completed :P_

_Dark: as i mentioned above, if it's not too late I may suggest trying another bluetooth keyboard just in case, but it is probably just mine. Glad you like the first chapter, and my posting may slow down a bit if this keyboard keeps bugging me. It may well end up being every other day, as I am wworking through the night at the mo on this story, and I think I should probably sleep at some point._

_If I don't update tomorrow, it's because of my French GCSE._

_just noticed that I have 735 views on my story and only 200-odd individual visitors! That means people are reading more than just the first chapter, happy Jet :)_

_Review for me to post chapters as soon as they're done, Don't if you don't want me to. Feedback is ggood, hate is bad. If you enjoy this and read it, it'd be nice of you to review so I can find out and also interact with you! _


	5. Chapter 5- Tiny Leaving Chapter

Chapter 5- Departure! Adventuring Once Again! Luffy's Solemn Vow

"Luffy, I think we actually managed to do everything on your list! Even making the list, which was the first thing. Some Celestial Dragon happened to go to sleep instead of bothering to shoot Sabo, you told Ace about Thatch, you trained for 10 years, and I brought this barrel! Not sure why you wanted it though."

"Thanks for all your help with that list, Shanks." Luffy intoned dryly, but he couldn't keep the delighted grin off his face. He hadn't even set sail and he'd already saved his brother's life, and maybe one of Ace's nakama, too. What were the words he had used to 'hint' to Ace about his fate? Oh, yeah...

"_Hey Ace, I feel like people with awesome red hair and cool cravats should not be allowed near devil fruits. If they are, you should watch them very closely." Ace looked confused. "That's pretty specific, Luffy. Any reason why you said that?" Luffy thought for a moment. _

_"Look at Shanks. He has awesome red hair, and he HATES devil fruits. He thinks being able to swim is more important!" _

_"Does Shanks have a cool cravat?" Luffy smirked at Ace's question. "No, but he totally should, don'tcha think?" DING! Subject changed, target didn't suspect a thing. Smoooooth._

When the rubber pirate went about trying to find a boat, asking various people but getting nothing. Finally he found a boat that he felt was appropriate to use and set off towards the pier.

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As Luffy set foot on the tiny boat that would take him on the next step towards his nakama, he grinned. The crowd of villagers watching him go shouted farewells and goodlucks from the brown pier that seemed so high up compared to him. Luffy wished he'd been able to master Geppou. Probably should have spent some time practicing it, instead of playing Catch-the-Shanks with containers made of Haki. Surprisingly fun. Oh well, who needs to do stupid amazing bouncy jumpy flying awesome... Luffy sank into depression as if he'd been attacked by Perona. He wanted to die and be reincarnated as a clam. He was... "OI, LUFFY, CATCH! Red-Haired Shanks frisbeed his prized straw hat towards Luffy and quick as a flash, Luffy's hand was around the brim of the hat he hadn't touched in ten years. Umm, make that minus 11 years. Time travel is stoopid, thought Luffy. He placed the crisp straw hat on his head in a movement that looked so natural for someone who'd just touched it for the first time that everyone watching was amazed. Apart from the weird red-haired stranger who had thrown the hat. Who was now gone, like the empty morning breeze. Except with redder hair. Luffy continued muttering to himself. "Ace and Sabo, you left together. You may go your seperate ways, you may go together. I claim to have surpassed you both thanks to my whole lifetime of training, but the fact is I need to prove it. My nakama. I let you die. I stood there and I watched and I begged and I shouted. But I couldn't do anything. Not until you'd all died. Why couldn't I save you? I don't know. After that bastard executed my first mate, 'First to join, last to leave' he said, I shattered the seastone holding me. I beat Akainu to within an inch of his life. That's when I escaped. I smashed through the wall of Impel Down using his body, and I left him to drown. I continued my journey, hoping I could somehow save you, and here we are. I made a solemn promise to myself, and I no longer need to become the Pirate King.

I WILL PROTECT YOU! NONE OF MY FRIENDS WILL DIE AGAIN!"

During Luffy's impassioned speech he failed to notice the shape rising out of the water. As one, the people watching on the sidelines gasped as a giant Sea King prepared to take what had been stolen from it ten years before back by force.

Luffy blurred. The air crackled with energy as the man who had appeared at the head of the Lord of The Coast, skin seamlessly covered in black armour, and coated further with a blue field that disturbed the very air, swung back of his open hand into the head of the Sea King. The vicious monster did not have time to cry out as it was vaporised. A flash of blue light blinded anyone looking directly at the damage as the water next to Luffy's boat fizzled and crashed into the space previously occupied by a large sea monster with a sound that can only be described as 'BOOM!' Luffy landed gracefully in his boat, adjusted his hat so his eyes were in shadow, and raised a hand in farewell.

When the villagers finally broke out of the amazed silence that the display had cast over the equally terrified and amazed audience, erupting into whoops and cheers, Luffy was already on the horizon.

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A/N Had to retype ths 4 times now. basically sorry for the length, I am sorry but due to real life I can't post until Monday, Love you all, review. Exxtra looong chapter on Monday

_Longer version: Hi, I'm sorry about the shortness of this chapter. I wrote this yesterday night without realising I would be busy almost all of the time until Monday. I tried to post this at lunch and the internet screwed me over 4 times, deleting stuff, failing at the crucial moment etcx. Hopefully I can sleep-deprive myself into getting one out for Sunday, but I sadly doubt it. I am not going through a crisis, don't worry :) I just have a lot of music type stuff to do and I'm not anywhere with Wifi I can post from._  
_What happened today: I went and saw a man who lent me an amazing cello from 1895. I also finished the final 15% of my French GCSE (apart from the reading+listening exams) and I spent the whole day trying to memorise about 2000 words of useless paragraphs. All done now, and I seriously feel happier than I have all year :) _  
_Tomorrow and the day after I'm doing stuff all day and I just realised OH GOD I'm going to be away for two weeks in the easter holidays the place I'm doing a cello course better have wifi I SWEAR. If it doesn't I will write a bunch of chapters and post them all in one day, or would you prefer I posted 2 a day for a while or what? Hopefully it won't matter because there will be wifi... WON'T THERE? _**_WOOOONNN'T THEERREE?!_**

**_Sorry for the gibberish last chapter if you got it, but huge shoutout to Mr. Indigo_****_ for fixing me up with a fix. Fixy fixety fix._**

**Ash: Thanks for reviewing again, I've noticed that my phone doesn't have the issues with the bluetooth connection so it might be my iPad's fault. If my phone has battery then I'll use that but it's very old and batteries last about an hour, so if there're double letters and stuff, I'm using my iPad. I'm going to address all the people asking about Shanks staying in next chapter's AN but yes, Shanks did stay in Foosha Village the whole time apart from occasional trips like he did before. However, Marco and the Redhair pirates were around to be like a Yonko enforcement agency or something. I'm pretty sure Shanks had used Foosha as a base for a pretty long time with no consequences, and that was with his crew staying there too. There will be consequences later in the story, but they won't be the destruction of the world as we know it. No, no no nono. That comes later ;)**

**Dark: Glad you liked the pacing :)**

**N4rut0uzum4ki: See above, in Ash's reply. Shanks made a gamble on the new age in both stories. However, in Oda's it was an arm. In mine it was some of his authority and possibly a bit of territory (if Shanks even has territory) If and when Luffy becomes Pirate King, there will be a lot in it for Shanks! :)**


	6. Chapter 6- New (old) Friends!

Chapter 6-The Adventure Begins! Meeting Old Soon-to-be Friends!

_A/N: There is something different about this chapter! Spot it!_

Luffy's small, fragile, badly beaten rowboat limped across the deep waters like a crippled dog. In the distance he saw the hull of a large cruise ship, cream coloured with three masts and a dolphin figurehead. He grinned profusely at the sight and the memories that came with it, but gulped when he saw that rowing wasn't having much of an effect on his movements. Only then did he remember the enormous whirlpool that was dragging his boat into itself, only about 4 minutes too late. He strained harder at the oars and may have escaped the vortex with sheer exertion if it wasn't for the boat, straining as the wood was pulled in two directions at once. After everything Luffy had subjected the pathetic dinghy to, it would certainly be utterly destroyed.

And it was. With a crunch barely audible above the roaring cyclone, the boat was torn into two parts. No longer held together and stable, those two halves were dragged in further and shredded. At that point, Luffy figured that staying in the boat was not his best course of action. He considered jumping into a barrel as he had done before, but decided against it. No point in doing something so helpless when this time, he was strong. As Buggy had shown him, flashy was always the way to go. Not to mention that Luffy had thrown the barrel at a REALLY loud seagull 5 minutes into the journey. That too.

Instead, Luffy leapt into the air, and grinned as an idea came to mind. Glancing down at the mess of planks that until recently was his mode of transport, and noting calmly that landing in the sea was not a good plan, there were no birds to ride on, and the nearest ship was not within stretching distance, Luffy shaped a blast of Haki into the whirlpool, scattering the bits of boat throughout the air.

He muttered to himself, "Prepare your butts, because this is gonna be **badass.  
**

...PUNS!"

And with that, the rubberman took off running. As easily as escaping from Shanks in 'speed training', Luffy hopped across the pieces of boat that were in the air, stepping off each with a light-footed sprint. As he came close to the last of the bits of wood in the air, he grinned and punched one with Armament so fast it made a giant splash, giving him just enough momentum to get the cruise ship within range.

"Gomu gomu no… ROCKET!" He shouted, grabbing the hull of the ship, catapulting himself towards the deck.

As he flew towards the ship, he noticed a distinct lack of anything next to it. Alvida was yet to begin her raid. So with time to spare, he decided to test out a new technique. He began tensing his muscles, activated Tekkai as his grandpa had so kindly demonstrated for him. To his delight, his arm was no longer contracting, but remained rigid instead. If he kept his grip, he could remain in the air, and even move by rotating around his hand. He stayed that was for a few minutes, enjoying the breeze and watching the waves. If his new technique was already this easy, the sea was nothing to him, as long as there was something solid nearby. He tried lowering himself to merely a few inches above the surface. It was so close, and yet farther than ever from taking his life. At that point, however, he began hearing the sounds of a rowdy pirate crew boarding, from the other side of the ship. And after that, the sound of a wimp flying through the air. A pink haired wimp, in fact.

"Coby!" Luffy grinned, remembering how weak and boring Coby had been the first time they met. He knew that it was his fault that Coby wasn't currently an admiral, and however hard he had to try, he was determined to make sure that Coby was able to fulfil his own dream once again. He thought about the Time Time fruit, as he had many times before.. It was vital that he didn't change time so much that Coby didn't get it again. In the hands of a more brutal member of the World Government, it would be more dangerous than a Buster could go back in time and physically wipe someone from existence. They could stop Gol D. Roger's birth. Luffy knew that in a way, the World Government had already got hold of the fruit through Coby, but the admiral had kept the fruit a secret from almost everyone, knowing how easily it could be abused. As a result, he had avoided water like the plague so no one would see if he sunk to his death. It was fairly easy to hide the fruit while fighting with it however, as he just appeared to be moving faster than other people, something the marines already accomplished with Soru. Only a select few knew about the fruit, causing Coby to known as as the only marine Admiral without a devil fruit. And for a time that was the case, as Coby HAD only discovered the fruit after his certainly did earn the respect that rumour gave him.

Anyway, Luffy mused, Coby's strong personal sense of justice was why he could be trusted with the potentially hugely destructive fruit. That meant there were two things Luffy had to do. Firstly, he had to make sure Coby STill developed his personal sense of justice, one which allowed for the possibility of good pirates and bad marines, as well as vice versa. The second thing was to make sure Coby still became an Admiral and obtained the Time Time Fruit, so that it could not fall into the hands of someone far worse.

Luffy ghosted downstairs into the kitchen, silent as a straw-hatted mouse, and saw Coby standing next to a barrel that, surprisingly, was actually full of alcohol. Luffy saw that he seemed to be having similar difficulty to last time, judging on the speed, and wondered what that said about him. A barrel of Luffy weighed the same as a barrel of wine. He supposed it was his intoxicating personality.

As Coby rolled the barrel around the corner, he was surrounded by three burly, angry men that looked like they wanted some wine. Luffy was pretty sure he'd heard them say something funny last time... There it was!

"Kid, as long as you don't tell Alvida-sama..." Luffy snorted and clamped a hand over his own mouth, "nobody will ever know. Now, let me punch this barrel open..." Luffy's eyes widened as he tried desperately not to burst out laughing. He hoped the pirate would do it, he SO hoped he would…

CRUNCH! Splash.

"BWAHAHAHAHAA!" The humiliated pirate glanced up to see a vaguely scary looking man wearing a straw hat, cackling furiously.

"He really punched it... he punched the barrel... WHY WOULD YOU PUNCH OPEN A WINE BARREL?!"

Luffy had tears running down his cheeks at this point. He didn't know why he found this so funny. It wasn't that hilarious... maybe it was the buildup from all his funny puns on the boat ride. It felt impolite to laugh at your own joke, even when there's nobody else there to do it for you.

The pirate, by this point, was furious. He glared at Luffy, but as he did, the Straw Hat composed himself, pulled his hat down to shadow his eyes, and strode purposefully towards the men. Each one fainted as he passed, leaving only the tiny Coby unscathed. He was understandably terrified and crawled backwards, trying to hide in a corner, as Luffy laughed.

"You're a wimp! I don't like you!" Coby flinched and then realised there wasn't actually a fist aiming for his face. He looked vaguely happy that he wasn't bound for the big coward-hole in the sky just yet, but somehow he felt like he'd let the behatted pirate down. There was anger in those eyes, and sorrow.

"Umm... Sorry?" Coby muttered hesitantly, not wanting to anger someone who could kill three men with his glare alone, "Why did you kill those guys for opening wine wrong? That's a bit mean. Not that I'm complaining no no PLEASE DONT HURT ME!"Luffy was surprised at how annoying Coby was back then… now. He had forgotten how whiny he could be, saying whatever he could to avoid a beating.

'SHUT UP!" Luffy yelled, feeling a migraine coming on."I only knocked them out. They'll be fine."

Coby, not wanting to anger the pirate further, muttered under his breath, "You're really strong."

"Of course!" Luffy grinned "I have to be, to become the Pirate King"

Coby leaped up and started furiously denying Luffy's chance of being Pirate King, his whiny, nasal voice crescendo-ing wildly as he attempted to save the life of this arrogant pirate.

"Impossible impossible impossible IMPOSSIBLE!"

This time Luffy's silent glare was all that was needed to shut him up. He didn't want to deal with Coby's 'we'll never accomplish anything' rant again.

"It doesn't matter if it's impossible." Luffy said, grinning "It's my dream, and I'll do it or die trying. That's what I'm living for. Now, we're leaving." Luffy didn't feel like he had time for theatrics; he'd arrived way later, when Coby was just getting the barrel, and he didn't want to get so behind schedule that Zoro died while he was being shouted at by Coby. How did this guy become an admiral before? Seriously?

As Luffy burst up through the floorboards he remembered his awesome plan. It was better to conceal his Haki for now, in case somebody reports it. He pulled off his bowling act just like last time as he knocked over 5 angry pirates with one of their own friends. He decided to mix things up after that, and instead of pretending to run away from the fresh horde of pirates, he ran around the mast a few times, wrapping one of his arms around it. The other he stretched out and solidified with Tekkai. When he let go of the wooden pole, the effect was beautiful. An instant clothesline for every pirate on deck. Except for two. One being Monkey D. Luffy, and the other a fat ugly cow that had so far stood back and let the others do the fighting.

"OY! WHAT DID YOU SAY?" The angry 'woman' yelled.

"Aw, I was narrating out loud again wasn't I?" Luffy grinned infuriatingly.

Coby, meanwhile, worked up the years of resentment he'd had being Alvida's slave, and yelled, "He's right! You are a FAT BITCH!"

Alvida raised her titular iron mace to strike Luffy in the head, but Luffy smiled.

"Lemme get that for ya." He leapt up and headbutted the mace with a Tekkai-reinforced head. 'How does that work' he wondered. 'Are there muscles in my head? Meh, whatever. It works, either way!' The mace shattered and Luffy saw three marine ships on the horizon. He picked Alvida up with finger and thumb and threw her all the way to the marine ships. One of them sank.

Coby's jaw dropped as Luffy placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought.

"She wasn't that heavy after all, Coby. Did she talk a lot?"

Coby, surprised at the sudden change in subject, answered. "Yes. why?"

Luffy grinned again. "She must have been full of hot air!"  
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_A/N: *bows* I thank you. I have returned from the breach! I hope y'all didn't miss me too much :) What do you think of the puns? Good? Great? OK then._

_The thing you should have noticed is the increase in quality in this chapter… becauuseee…. I'VE GOT A BETA READER! Mr Monkey D. Funky spent an obscene amount of time reading this chapter, cutting it to shreds, and rearranging it into a readable piece of work. He seems to have something against my puns though… wonder why? Anyway, huge props to him, I enjoyed re-reading 'my own work' this time around, because it's as good as new! Go check out his Assassin Classroom/One Piece crossover if you're familiar with A-Cl. I'm not, but I still enjoyed reading it! Didn't really know what was going on, though._

_Since we need to get each chapter beta-d before release, I'm going to change the post schedule to every two days. If I have wifi during my intensive cello course I may be able to post a few chapters, but the week after I'm completely free to write for hours on end!_

**_Dark: No problem! I wanted to get one more out before Monday. I can't find the typo you mentioned, what chapter was it in?_**

**_Ash: Indeed! I'm glad you like my sense of humour, and I hope it's even more awesome now it's grammatically correct and aesthetically pleasing. Thanks for the cookie!_**

**_Clay: Thank you for the review! The size of the Going Merry can't change as it was just a boat Kaya had lying around. The Sunny may be bigger, or it may not. Spoilers! Luffy will definitely have to tell somebody on the crew, most likely Zoro. The others will learn… in time..._**

_If you liked the chapter, review. If you didn't like the chapter, review and say why not._

_If you liked the beta-ing, review and go give Monkey D. Funky some love._

_You're all awesome, BYEE!_


	7. Chapter 7- Shells Town!

_C_hapter 7- Shells Town!- Meeting Roronoa Zoro!

As Coby and Luffy sailed to the closest island they could find, Coby gasped, realizing what this small island with its pretty town, luscious scenery, and hugely dominating naval base had in store for them.

"Luffy! You can't get off at this island!" The pink-haired wimp whined nasally, not wanting his pirate friend to be captured by the terrible threat that lurked on this island.

"Why not?" Asked a puzzled Luffy, pretending to wonder what could be so terrible about it.

"That island is a marine base." Coby told Luffy as he pointed to the largest building, by far, on the whole island. It was metallic and round, and had a huge seagull and the word 'Navy' painted onto it.

"Oh really?" The straw-hat asked dryly, "What on earth gave you that idea?"

"Well..." began Coby, oblivious to the joke directed at him, for the amusement of nobody but the creator.

"Was it the trees? The pink houses?" continued Luffy, his words dripping with sarcasm. "The freaking HUGE building with the marine logo? Umm... the sand?"

"I get it, I get it!" Coby reddened, yet again the butt of Luffy's joke, and yet again not realising until too late. "Anyway, this particular marine base has captured a terrible demon. The most terrifying person! The greatest swordsman in the East Blue! Roronoa Zoro!"

Luffy's face lit up like a christmas tree on fire as he realised he was about to meet the first member of his crew, the one he probably shared the greatest bond with, the only one who didn't die at the hands of the marines, his first mate- Zoro!

"So where can I find this Zoro character?" Luffy asked Coby loudly (apparently his migraine had gone away. Oh good) and everyone in the streets gasped and backed away from him and Coby like he'd just announced they'd caught the Black Death.

"Wow, they must be really scared of him. He's the worst person in East Blue without a doubt," Coby reasoned, terror covering his face as he realised they were headed for this demon. And all because this pirate prat was too curious for his own good. Not that he'd say that to his face, of course. "I'm glad Captain Morgan managed to capture him...?" Coby looked around, shocked, as everyone backed away again. "What? What'd I say?

Luffy put a hand on Coby's shoulder, about to break his ideal of the perfect marine.

"There are good pirates like me, who just want to have adventures and be free, and bad pirates, like Alvida, who do things like enslaving stupid people who row onto her boat by accident. In the same way there are good marines and bad marines too. My grandpa is good- he has his own sense of justice and is independent. As well as being strong, that's what gets you promoted in the Marines. I suspect that the captain of the base on this island is one of the 'bad' marines who abuses his power and privilege. To be honest, he probably didn't even earn the rank of Captain fairly. Either he'll have friends in high places, or he'll have been manipulated into taking the position for somebody else's agenda. You want to be a marine, don't you?"

Coby nodded hesitantly, unsure of what Luffy's intention was.

"How did you know that though?"

Luffy replied quickly, covering up the fact that he seemed to know more than he let on.

"The way you looked when I said we were still going to the island, as well as the way your face fell when I told you what I thought about Morgan. Oops, sorry!" He caught himself too late as he accidentally scared everyone yet again. "Actually, before we go find you a job, I want to check something."

Luffy had caught sight of Morgan's statue. It was in a different position, slightly more raised than it had been the first time he'd been on the island. He rushed Coby to the edge of the wall and found a small, crying girl. She was lying on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, blood pouring from a large gash on her forehead. She had a split lip and a bruised temple. Worst of all, her arm was twisted at an unnatural angle and wasn't moving. In a flash, Luffy was at her side.

"Rika!" He scooped up the girl and disappeared almost faster than Coby could follow. He was quickly in the tavern and he handed the girl to a hugely shocked mother. "Fix her."

Then he turned to the three other people in the pub. Two of them were marine soldiers, one looking very shocked, and the other incredibly guilty. The other was a spoilt brat wearing a stupid purple suit, a terrible blonde haircut, and missing the top half of his head. Finally, he permanently looked like someone had farted right under his nose. The wind must have changed. Luffy growled as he realised what had happened and barely restrained himself from snapping the brat's neck.

'Don't kill him, he becomes good, he becomes good...'

"NNRRGGH!" Luffy couldn't stop himself entirely, he planted his first firmly into Helmeppo's face and watched him fly perfectly accurately through the open door of the tavern–Luffy didn't think causing property damage would be an appropriate response to free food and drink that would surely come his way–and through the wall of a building opposite. After all, when did _they _feed Luffy? One of the marines half-heartedly raised his rifle and aimed it at Luffy, only to have it instantly slapped out of his hands. The other one merely stood there, shell-shocked, knowing bitter retribution would come down hard onto him, as he was the one who had injured the girl this badly. Luffy fixed him with a bitter glare.

"Grow up! Don't follow orders blindly like an idiot!" The pirate snapped in a perfect recreation of Garp's 'marine training voice'. The marine nodded and snapped a salute, not even really conscious of why he was listening to this stranger, let alone saluting him. As soon as Luffy had said his piece, he disappeared from the tavern, delivering a swift kick to Helmeppo's side as he blurred past the flat-headed asshole, bursting through the solid crowds by vociferously screaming,

"Helmeppo ZORO CAPTAIN MORGAN PIRATES!" which caused them all to leap back in terror, and leaped over the high wall.

"What the HELL was that!? How'd you get over here?" A slow, dark voice greeted Luffy. He smiled knowingly. It was Zoro's 'Scaring off strangers' voice, but Luffy was by no means going to fall for that.

"Roronoa Zoro, huh? You don't look like much. I thought you were the greatest swordsman in the East Blue." Zoro looked indignantly at Luffy.

"I'm here by choice. You can't judge me for that." Luffy smirked as he saw another chance to get on the nerves of his favourite swordsman.

"By choice, you say? Doesn't look very fun. Is it, like, some kind of sex thing?" Zoro scowled at the insinuation.

"NO!" I'm going to survive for 12 more days, and then that bastard will let me go, and that kid won't be hurt any more than she is." Luffy decided to play along.

"Kid?" Zoro felt for some reason that he could trust the random straw-hatted guy who knew exactly how to get on his nerves.

"Some girl. This marine captain's son- Helmeppo- let his wolf run around in her mum's pub, she tried to stop it, doggy got angry, girl got scared, I killed doggy. Helmeppo threatened to have the girl and her mother killed if I didn't come and get tied up for a month." Luffy nodded, and grinned again.

"Still sounds like a sex thing to me." The straw-hatted pirate walked over to Zoro and began untying the ropes holding him up to the pole. He had 3 down by the time Zoro stopped him.

"Wait! If I don't stay here, the girl will die!" Luffy tutted in response.

"Yeah, about that... He said he was going to execute you tomorrow." Zoro snarled.

"Dammit!" Luffy asked him what he meant.

"Dammit, I'm going to be killed, or Dammit, the girl's going to die?" The marimo pouted.

"Neither, I've spent 18 days tied to a pole for no good reason! Wait, the girl's going to die?"Luffy nodded, his voice betraying his disapproval.

"Trespass or something." Zoro's voice showed the same emotion.

"Anyway man, can you get me my swords from Helmeppo's room? The bastard stole them. Also, can you give me those rice balls on the floor there?" Luffy's lip curled at the sight of the rice, ground into the dirt like a really bad sports team.

"What, you're gonna name an attack after them or something? They're all muddy anyway. And is that sugar I spy? And another thing, if I get you your swords, you're joining my crew." Zoro interrupted him, choosing to ignore the fact that Luffy knew his attack name.

"You're a pirate? I don't join scum like you. And yes, I know about the sugar, just give me them." The Straw Hat simultaneously fed the onigiri to the swordsman and untied the rest of his bonds. As the swordsman dropped to a kneeling position as his aching legs gave way, Luffy smirked widely and announced to the world,

"I knight thee Sir Zoro, first mate to the Pirate King. Rice, my knight!"

Zoro groaned loudly, both from the hell his legs and arms were giving him and from the terrible pun the man who had somehow decided that he was Zoro's captain had just made. Luffy, meanwhile, disappeared and returned only a couple of seconds later with 3 swords that he handed to Roronoa.

"I didn't know which one was yours, so I got all three." Zoro grinned.

"You're pretty fast, and I like your attitude, but I don't think I'll join you. I don't want a bounty." Luffy smirked and pointed behind the marimo as several marines attacked. Zoro's lightning reactions meant he wasn't cut to shreds, but as Luffy pointed out:

"You've attacked the marines now. You're basically a pirate, and you might as well be MY pirate. After all, the Pirate King should have the Greatest Swordsman as his knight. Besides, how are you going to find Mihawk if you don't come to the Grand Line with me? My teacher knows Hawk-Eye very well, although he hasn't seen him in a while." Zoro, about to counterattack the marines, stared back at Luffy.

"How do you know my dream?" Luffy smiled knowingly in response.

"That's for me to know, and me to probably tell you later on." With effort, Zoro grunted and pushed away the marines attacking him, throwing all of them into disarray and scowling at Luffy's withdrawal of information. He gasped, seeing Helmeppo aim a gun at Luffy's head. Acting on instinct alone, Zoro dived to push Luffy out of the way... and nothing happened. Zoro flopped onto the ground like an idiot, Helmeppo's bullet ricocheted off Luffy's head like it was made of steel, and Luffy glanced down, amused.

"Looking for more rice, Zoro?"

"SHUT IT!"

As Luffy leapt upon Captain Morgan, meeting his axe blow with a tekkai-hardened fist and shattering it, as well as cheerfully punching his metal jaw to the point where half of it fell to the ground, Zoro stalked over to Helmeppo.

"Don't kill him, Zoro!" The swordsman frowned.

"Why not?" Luffy grinned in the way he had before, when he knew something Zoro didn't.

"It's not really his fault, he's just been corrupted by his terrible excuse for a father. However, he did shoot me, and it's not nice to shoot people!" The last three words were punctuated by a fist to various parts of the blonde brat's anatomy, leaving him barely conscious as Luffy left a note on his father's unconscious body with a pen that a marine soldier lent him, smiling gratefully. Luffy went to leave, but changed his mind and quickly trussed up Morgan and his son with the ropes that had held up Zoro, as well as some he stole from the statue, smashing it in the process. He was interrupted by the ringing of a Mini Den-Den Mushi, which he fished out of the marine's pocket. The snail, decorated with an iron jaw and an axe-hand (pretty narcissistic) spoke with a worried tone-

"Captain Morgan! We've been contacted about a disturbance at your base. Do you need backup from the nearby islands?" Luffy's eyes glinted mischievously as he spoke clearly into the phone.

"Captain Morgan's a little tied up at the moment. Come and get him, I've left a note with him"

Luffy turned and stalked away, followed by his new first mate, the demon 'pirate hunter'. Luffy decided that could be changed to 'pirate, hunter.' The two returned to the tavern in the wake of a huge celebration by all the marines, who seemed to have little respect for these particular authority figures.

When the victorious duo returned to the tavern to a patched-up Rika and an extremely grateful mother. Luckily Rika hadn't been injured thanks to the marine soldier's advice, something that Rika made sure to tell him. After Luffy's prediction of free food had been fulfilled, they left, saving some of Commander Ripper's face as he didn't have to ask them to leave, something Luffy knew he was eternally grateful. He left Coby with them to become a Marine, and he knew he could leave the next phase of Coby's 'conditioning' to his grandpa, who he could definitely trust with the task.

As Zoro and Luffy stepped into the boat, the swordsman asked one thing.

"Do you know where we're going?" Luffy grinned reassuringly.

"Not a clue."

_A/N: Not sure when I can post this, but it's all setup so I can just click publish._

_Gonna keep it up with the puns, maybe cut it back a little bit, I'll run out otherwise. I'm still considering how I'm going to do the Baratie, my beta pointed out that my idea was a bit stupid and I just realised Sanji would never join, so that went down the drain. I'll use elements of it though!_

_I checked through some other timetravel stories and discovered that one of my great ideas was taken by a fic called Once again. It's a shame :( If all great minds thought alike, there would be no innovation. *puts hand over earpiece* I've just been told by my beta that if I don't read Once Again, everyone will hate me forever._

_stop misrepresenting me i am actually a very kind person (though i do tend to say the kind of thing like "everyone will hate you" so it's scary that you said that)_

_Ash: Glad you liked the puns, Luffy will definitely tell the crew quite soon. Probably Loguetown. (Heh. Soon.) Smut isn't going to be a thing in my story._

Dark: Thanks!

Johnny: Glad you like it :) I'm not sure how I'm going to play Sabo in this story. Either I have him go with Ace, (the idea I had pre-stolen from me was him joining the whitebeard pirates) or he and Ace split up and he ends up at the R.A. That means I won't be writing him for LONG TIME.


	8. Chapter 8-Nami

Chapter 8- Orange Town! Meeting Nami!

As Luffy and Zoro sat in the small boat they had 'stolen' from the marines, slowly sailing straight in the direction of wherever, Zoro heard a peculiar rumbling.. His hand was instantly on his katana, while Luffy watched the swordsman, amused at his level of alertness even on the 'weakest' sea. The rumbling came again, and Zoro focused on where it was coming from... Luffy's stomach.

"What?" Luffy protested, "I'm hungry!" Zoro relaxed again, the mystery solved, as he returned to his 'meditative state' and began snoring. Luffy glanced at him cynically.

"Oi, I'm meditating!" Zoro said. Luffy smirked disparagingly.

"Oh, I never knew you were meant to snore during meditation. All this time, I've been doing it wrong!"

Zoro grunted but the taunting didn't stop him from relaxing back into the boat.

"Ne, Zoro." The swordsman glanced up to where the rubberman was deep in thought.

"My next entrance. Should I go for style, or stealth?" Luffy asked. The marimo also pondered for a second, eventually deciding.

"Style at the moment. You're not well known enough to not want to gain more infamy. Why do you ask?

Luffy, however, did not answer him. He did yell one thing:

"Gum Gum ROCKET!" The straw-hatted pirate disappeared into the air, and Zoro heard a faint "WHOOOO!" as the Rubber Idiot dodged the angry beak of a very large bird, and mounted it like it was a horse. "Giddyup, now, birdie!

xxxxxxxx

Back in Shells Town

"Sir, we've found Captain Morgan! He's tied up over here." The commanding marine in the 'support group' looked over.

"Was there a note like the den-den mushi said?" The nameless mook who had informed the lieutenant of Morgan's whereabouts nodded and handed him a piece of paper, scribbled on in the handwriting of a child

"This guy was being mean to the civilians and he was going to execute my first mate, so I took him down a peg! Speaking of any pegs, his jaw might be missing a few. His son shot me in the head, so I pegged him one too! Silly Peggar!  
If anyone abuses privileges, they should have to peg for forgiveness.  
Signed,  
Monkey D. Luffy (Not really that into pegs)"

The marine finished reading the note and all present groaned in relief as the terrible puns stopped. Another marine ran up and handed him another piece of paper.

"Sir, we took the statement of the civilians and local marines and it seems that Captain Morgan has been seriously abusing his power as base commander. There is a girl who is seriously injured from a marine being forced to throw her over a wall, and countless people have been executed on a whim! He also spent the island's citizen welfare budget on building a huge statue of himself, that's the lumps of rock that are everywhere. Apparently the pirate who left the note smashed it."  
The marine lieutenant looked amused.

"Are you sure it's a pirate? He's acting more and more like a marine."

A pink-haired recruit spoke up. "If I may, sir, he rescued me from slavery on a pirate ship and brought me to this island to train as a marine! It was very clear he was a pirate though."  
The lieutenant glared at the recruit for breaking protocol but nodded in response to his contribution.

"We'll be taking Morgan away now. He has earned some time in a military prison, and Helmeppo will be taken into care by the marine base. Enjoy your time in control of the base, Commander Ripper. Make it count."

xxxxxxxxx

Luffy gasped as his birdy-ride was targeted by a cannon, and he quickly swung around the bird's neck, using his momentum to swing the bird out of the way and put him in the position where he could reach the incoming cannonball, which he kicked down into the pavement way below him. He grinned as he saw the 3 men chasing Nami stumble to a halt just before the cannonball smashed into the ground just in front of them.

He calmly dropped to the ground in the wake of the confusion. He noted that Nami had disappeared without taking the chance to drop him in it this time. He assumed that she had thought the cannonball was an accident, and not the herald of the Strawhat. As the smoke from the cannonball cleared, the three men saw a dark silhouette. It was in a crouch with its hand on the ground. The straw hat upon its head put its face in shadow but underneath it the men could see two orange-red glowing points of light just where the eyes should be. As the figure slowly raised itself to the same height as the men, a terrifyingly powerful aura burning into their souls, they baulked and ran back to their captain, screaming like babies who had just seen a demon. Which, of course, they thought they had. Nami prepared to scream as the dark figure turned around to face where she was hiding. But as the smoke cleared, she saw a young man with his finger and thumb underneath his eyes. The man clicked his fingers and the fire that danced malevolently at their tips, just next to his eyes went out like a light, leaving two perfectly normal eyes that glinted with harmless mischief and crinkled as he smiled gently at Nami.

"Don't worry, they're gone." Luffy remembered the first time he'd tried that trick. He'd learnt at Fishman island that combining Gear Second with Haki caused fire, but he'd never used it in that small of an area, until he'd thought of an awesome prank to do to Shanks. It was similar to what he'd just done, but instead of using the smoke from an explosive cannonball, he'd merely hid in the shade of the jungle. Needless to say it had procured the desired reaction from the calm but surprisingly easily startled Captain, just as it had from the men he'd just scarred forever, and especially Nami. Everything Luffy was trying to do here required the utmost precision, as he tried to acquire the trust of Nami without seeming manipulative. He'd scared her with the 'demon' persona and then shown he was harmless, which should mean her relief would cause her to trust him more.

"Anyway, hi! I'm Luffy. Good to meet you, Nami."

The orange-haired pirate thief gasped and stepped back. Her eyes widened and she asked Luffy the question he knew would come.

"How do you know my name? And how dd you do the fire trick back there? Is that some kind of Devil Fruit?" Luffy laughed at Nami's instant assumption. There was a reason she was one of the smartest people to ever be born in East Blue. Luffy knew. He'd done his research.  
"That's correct, at least indirectly. It's a result of my Devil Fruit that I can do that, but the Fruit I ate is the Gum Gum Fruit, which turned my body to rubber," Luffy explained, grabbing a pole near Nami with his stretching powers and snapping his body near her.

"Let's have a civilised conversation instead of shouting where Buggy can hear us, eh?" Nami nodded, appreciating the logic of the admittedly charming of course didn't know it took years of classes in being charismatic with Makino to get him to the point where he could willingly 'switch on' his natural charisma.  
"Tell you what, come in here, I'll treat you" Luffy nodded gratefully.

"I've just flown over here on a giant bird, I could do with a sit down I suppose. Is this your house?" Nami shook her head.

"The owner was sadly killed by Buggy. Which gets me back to the main question, how do you know my name?" Luffy nodded, glad she'd got back to his most convincing argument.

"I've got sources. See, currently I've been searching for you. You have some information that I'd like to know." Luffy caught a glimpse of Zoro through the open door in the corner of his eye, and waved his hand indicating for him to leave.

"What information?" Nami questioned, wondering what she could possibly have that would interest this powerful stranger.

"I'm currently planning an attack on a pirate from the Grand Line, currently a class C pirate by my ranking, who goes by the name of Arlong." Nami's reaction, as Luffy had known it would be, was one of abject shock and terror. Nobody could take down Arlong, she thought. The only thing she could do was buy her village back from him. But this guy talked about it as a daily chore. Who was this guy?

"Are you some kind of bounty hunter?" Nami asked the stranger, knowing that if she handled this wrong he'd get himself killed. And as strange as it was, she didn't want that.

"Actually, no. I'm a pirate." Luffy replied, but continued talking soothingly, making sure Nami didn't register that fact separately to the rest of what he had to say. "However, I think of myself as class A, unlike the pirates you must be used to."

Frowning, Nami asked, "You said you ranked Arlong as a class C. What are the 'class' things?"

Luffy nodded and explained. "The system is how I rank people on how they care for their friends and others. It goes from Class A- caring about everyone, especially nakama, to Class D- expecting your crew to die for you and using them as tools. Arlong is C- he cares about his crew but no-one else. He's taken over whole villages, especially the home of someone I want to join my crew, and I'm going to hunt him down."

Nami, who had been nodding along to his ideas, slowly realising that her view of pirates was a very narrow one indeed, snapped her eyes open when he mentioned joining him. She felt attracted to the idea, but she didn't want to leave her village in the lurch.

"Sorry, Strawhat, I've got other commitments. Maybe another time? I have to warn you not to try and fight Arlong. I nearly have enough money to buy back my village, and I couldn't handle it if it was interrupted. He'd find a way to say it didn't count as me paying if you helped." Nami was saddened by the idea of turning down this man, but she didn't even know his name. Not that she wanted to, that would make it harder to force him to leave.

"A temporary alliance it is, then. You become my navigator for a while, in return I'll help you with Red-nose-" Somewhere in the town a certain clown pirate felt the urge to kill someone, "-and Arlong if he double-crosses you. By the way, good to meet you. The name's Monkey D. Luffy, Future Pirate King." Luffy seemed so confident and self-assured that Nami began to question her early doubts. The man seemed to be able to read her mind, especially since he came up with a plan that erased them straight away. As Nami began to smile with hope for the first time in years, Luffy grinned too. "Yosh! I've got a plan. You tie me up, take me to Buggy, pretend to join his crew, and then I'll break his face."

Frowning, Nami wondered what the purpose of the first three points was, but she was quickly informed by the strange pirate that it would be "so much more awesome." Luffy quickly informed her how to tie him up so he could easily escape. "Hope I can still do it, I'm a little ropey. Basically, put this knot here, and put my hand on the bit that sticks out. Now I can do this," Luffy jerked his wrist to the right, and the ropes fell clean off.

Nami whistled, impressed. As she picked up the ropes and began to tie Luffy's hands as he had shown him, she prepared herself to fully trust this random stranger. "Do you actually want me on your crew? You'd better not be stringing me along."

"I can't. You've got the ropes!" Luffy grinned. "Don't worry Nami, I need a navigator and there's nobody better than you to do it."

xxxxxxxxx

As Nami roughy shoved a tied-up Luffy to his knees in front of Buggy the Clown, she smirked.

"The thief? What are you doing back here? Do you want to die?"

Nami grinned and gestured at Luffy.

"My boss and I had a... falling out. I decided to join you instead. Here's your map back." Nami handed the map of the Grand Line to the clown and Buggy grinned as his men placed Luffy in a cage that seemed to be unbreakable. The clown grinned and started a party. Luffy grinned at how much the clown pirate was similar but different to his mentor.

"Oi, Buggy!" Luffy called out to get the attention of the clown in order to distract him from the green-haired swordsman sneaking up behind him. Buggy turned and scowled at Nami's captain.

"What do you want, reject boss?" The clown laughed and hi-fived Nami at his 'incredible' insulting skills. Luffy nodded at her questioning glance. He whispered to the orange-haired thief,

"Don't worry, I don't think he _knows_. If we watch where we _tread_, in a second I'll get _loose_ and we can make a _start- No… _wait"

It was at this moment that Buggy the Clown interrupted them furiously.

"WHOSE NOSE IS RED AND JUICY LIKE A TOMATO?"

To infuriate Buggy even further, Luffy elaborated on the red-nose joke, with his own little ditty.  
_  
"Chopper the blue-nosed reindeer,  
Had a nose so very blue,  
Oh well, it isn't too bad,  
'Cos red would suck much more, it's true!"_

Before Buggy could even get angry, Luffy continued with the next round of his 'annoy-Buggy' material.

"You remind me of the guy who gave me this hat. His name was Shanks and he trained me for 10 years. Do you know him? See, he mentioned a red-nosed idiot clown who thought he was flashy." Luffy grinned and Buggy, infuriated, ordered his men to fire a Buggy Ball at the town, to demonstrate his power. Then, he asked Nami to do the honours of shooting her newly-acquired captain with the same ammunition. Strangely, he had not thought of how close Luffy's cage was to his base when he tried to blow it up. Either way, Zoro to the rescue! The marimo sliced up Buggy into salami, and was promptly stabbed, like an idiot, in the back.

"What a chump" Buggy cackled horribly. "Never lower your guard."

"What the HELL red nose?! You should be decorating a pizza by now. What with the tomato nose and the thinly sliceable body, anyhow. Come over here, and I'll crush you into purée!" While Zoro lay on the floor bleeding to death, Luffy muttered the name of his next technique.

"Kami-e." Suddenly, he was standing outside of the cage, terrifying everyone who watched. Luffy reached out, grabbed Buggy by the neck and told him:

"You shot at the bird I was riding to the town. That bird was fun, and I was having fun. Now I'm not. However, I'm glad you brought me back to earth. You like it flashy do you?" The rubber pirate tossed Buggy into the air. He pulled out a small knife, and forced the clown to separate his body by slashing him with it. Luffy threw the parts he'd caught hold of to Nami who was ready with the ropes Luffy had been wearing until very recently. She bundled up the spare parts of Buggy and Luffy leaped up into the air to take care of the rest of it. The rubber pirate grappled with the clown in midair before ending up on top and slamming Buggy to the floor, so hard that he bounced high enough to be caught by Luffy's Gum Gum Bazooka as the Strawhat returned to the ground, and what remained of Buggy was blasted off into the distance.

"CURSE YOU STRAW HAT BASTARD! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" The rednose screamed as he disappeared into the sky.

A/N: According to Luffy's letter, he's quite the _peggy_ Sue. I need to write the next chapter quickly because I might not be here on Sunday- and then until the next week. If there's wifi at the place I'm going to then I will try to get atleast 1 chapter out next week but sadly I can't guarantee anything. Since I'm staying at some posh school there is a good chance that will be blocked. Either way, production is going to slow down dramatically next week, but I may be able to get a chapter out every day the week after next week depending on whether I work my beta to death or not (We all love ya, bluhbluh). There will be a lot more chapterwise that week.

_**Johnny Spectre: Your idea works on so many levels that you cannot imagine :D Hope you don't mind but I'm stealing it :P. Luffy paid attention to what Garp did because he knew it would help him more this time around. The time difference thing coming into effect with Rika. Probable more drastic events in the future.**_

_**Mr Indigo: Is that a reprimand? A statement? An instruction? Hopefully you like what I put in this chapter from our conversation earlier. I only want to hint it because I don't really want them it in the story :P **_

_**Ash: Spoilers are so funny when you know the story and they don't :P. Obviously I don't know most of the story; I have a basic list of ideas, but the 'main storyline' hardly exists. I basically write hints to what it could be, and then work out what it is judging by those hints :P**_

_**Dark :Thanks for the review, I like puns too (as you may be able to tell)**_

_**Mojtaba13: Sorry I'm not awesome enought :( I answered the Shanks thing in the AN for an earlier chapter. What is on Raftel hasn't been revealed yet, and the World Tree is just an idea I had for part of Raftel. It would be incredibly powerful, as you can see with [REDACTED] in the recent arcs. And they're just zoans. It hasn't been revealed yet, so I get free reign (or rein, never knew which one of those it was, and they both make sense).**_

_**Until whenever I next post. (HOPEFULLY SOON *CROSSES FINGERS***_


	9. Chapter 9- Syrup Village!

Chapter 9- Syrup Village! The Return of Captain Usopp!

Luffy, Zoro, and Nami sat cramped into the tiny sailboat. Luffy would periodically wake Zoro, to the swordsman's chagrin, while Nami would occasionally express her frustration by punching them both in the face. Several times. Without missing a beat in her navigation. Luffy grinned, recalling Sanji's typical antics and what he would say if he were there. To be fair, he'd probably be getting punched just as hard.

Suddenly, Luffy jumped up excitedly, shouting "LAND! LAND! FOOD! LAND!" He leaped over the side of the boat, foolishly forgetting two things. He couldn't walk on water, or even swim, and he was STUPID.

As Luffy sank helplessly to the bottom of the ocean, he caught a glimpse of Zoro's scowling face as he dove in to drag the drowning monkey out of the sea. As he was being set down on the deck of their temporary vessel, which was barely large enough to hold the motley crew, he had a great idea. He looked towards the orange-haired navigator, who as he noted hadn't even attempted to save a disapproving glance at her he pushed the matter aside;

"Nami, can we buy a typewriter? It's a cool way of writing words some guy invented in West Blue. I feel like I could write a really cool story. It could be all tribal and awesome!"

Nami looked puzzled at this wild, not to mention random, claim. "What makes you think you could write this awesome story?"

Luffy smirked. "I can try. Maybe I'll make something good eventually. You know what they say: Monkeys and typewriters!"

After Nami and Zoro had finished beating up Luffy, they saw that the boat had managed to ground itself on the island. Luffy hadn't remembered the large rocks that were now sticking through the hull, but the boat certainly wasn't going to forget for a good while. Luffy realised it was more important that they get hold of the Merry, but was confident that he would be able to, as long as he handled Usopp and Kaya right, and didn't let cat cosplayers kill them.

"That sounds cool." Luffy mused, sounding the words out and rolling them around in his mouth. "Killed by Cat Cosplayers, Cat Cosplay Killing Killed. Cats Kills Killing Cat Cosplay... Have to think about that one" He ignored the searching glare Nami and Zoro gave him and leapt onto the sand. Nami and Zoro followed him it of the boat, involuntarily salivating at the thought of a long-awaited meal.

"HALT! Treacherous pirates, you picked the wrong village to make your little raid on!" A sudden shout rang out. A tall, proud stranger stood on the top of the nearby cliff, with curly black hair, glaring and clutching desperately to a small, beaten-up, slingshot as if it was his only hope. He continued his spiel, self-righteously pointing his thumb to his own chest.

"Leave here at once, or you will face the wrath of the mighty Captain Usopp and his 10 million warriors!" To that Luffy giggled, thousands of fond memories of Luffy lying to protect people who needed no protection reverberating with the captain's head.

The other 'Captain' looked upset at Luffy's failure to take his advice seriously, but before he could make any more ridiculous claims Luffy reached out and gently prodded the sniper's admittedly strong, but unharnessed, Haki with his own far superior aura. The effect of which was that the Mighty Captain Usopp, commander of ten MILLION men, swayed and toppled over forward... off the front of his cliff. Luffy was, however, at the foot of the rocky overcrop before Usopp had even fallen halfway down, and he caught the sniper with no effort at all, laying him down gently on the sand before running to grab some sea water. Stretching his hands out, the rubber man formed a sort of watertight container that held just enough to rouse someone (A trick he wasn't sure about when it first occurred to him, but it turned out the idea held water). Making sure not to step too far into the ocean and lose his strength, he gathered a decent amount and walked over to pour it on Usopp's face. Normally this wouldn't wake up a Haki victim, who in rare cases could go into comas, but if a full blast was akin to dropping a boulder on someone, Luffy gave the sniper a mere slap. One he took quite well, in fact. Usopp had proven many times just how much punishment he could take, and that stamina extended to his mental strength, even if he himself didn't know it was there.

After some bruises for Luffy, for doing weird things to the longnose they just met, and the introductions and explanations after that same longnose roused, the four headed into village. Usopp treated them to a meal in a local shop, then showed them a photo of a pale girl, to which Luffy nodded impatiently.

"Kaya, right? Er-!" Luffy caught himself but far too late. 'CRAP!' he mentally cursed. In his eagerness to impress Usopp and make sure he'd still join the crew, Luffy had revealed he knew more than he was letting on. He quickly composed himself and adopted a knowing, but slightly panicked, smile.

"How did you know that?" The sniper turned on Luffy, thankfully more impressed than angry. Luffy half-sighed, relieved, but caught himself and tapped his nose enigmatically.

"I have my sources"

Usopp, his enthusiasm to talk to the pirates curbed by the strange conversation, made his excuses and left, presumably to talk to Kaya. Luffy remembered what came next, and he relished the thought.

Even as Luffy licked his lips in anticipation, three children burst in. The first one wore a yellow T-shirt with a blue jacket over the top. He had square-rimmed glasses over his strangely pupil-less eyes. His hair extended in a strange stalk over his head. The next wore an apple-shaped hat, with a skull on his green T-shirt. Despite the apple-hat, he looked the most normal of the trio, because the third had purple hair which completely covered his eyes. It spiked out of the top off his strange headwear, which was red and featured the same skull as Appleboy.

"Where's Captain Usopp?" the children chorused in perfect unison. Luffy timed his voice to fit exactly with Zoro's as they both stood up and delivered his line."We ate him!" The children were terrified, and Nami was slightly irked, but impressed that Zoro and Luffy could be organised enough to speak at exactly the same time. God knows they do it all the time, but not normally the same words.

The Usopp pirates screamed out that Nami was an 'OGRESS!' and disappeared. Luffy and the others chased them to the gate of Kaya's mansion, where they saw Usopp sitting in a tree, conversing animatedly with the rich heiress, telling her all about the giant goldfish he'd met on his adventures. Luffy hushed them all, easily climbed the fence, reached the window, and shook Kaya's hand, all before realising the rest of his friends were trapped outside the gate. No worries, Luffy just slingshotted them all over with a huge crash into the dirt. Oops.

"OI! YOU! INTRUDERS!" Enter Klahadore...

(A/N: Somebody help that tiny woman! She's trapped in a square! (For anyone who didn't get the typewriter joke, tribal people Shake spears)).

This chapter was a little on fast-forward because I didn't want to repeat stuff. Sorry if the pacing's off.

Very sorry for the long wait, and in advance for more waiting. I'm very busy with GCSEs and other jobs etc at the moment. However, hopefully I'll have more free time after Monday. Y'all are awesome, Go away Marcus (guess which reviewer that guy was) and MIIAAAOOWWW).


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